Holly Jacobson and Tessa Churchill, seniors at Greely
High School in Cumberland, are at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
today, explaining how they would use fast-growing algae to help solve the energy
crisis.
In a nutshell, the young women may have found a way to produce more
biodiesel fuel while consuming fewer organic resources.
The project got its start two years ago when Jacobson and Churchill began
examining natural oils stored in fatty acids -- called lipids -- in various
forms of marine algae. Recently, they identified a strain of algae that produces
more oil for a given mass.
